A St. Paul man was charged Tuesday with second-degree murder of a pedestrian who argued with him about his driving.

Aloeng Kelly Vang, 19, who told police he was a former gang member, was angry after a confrontation Sunday with Jeffrey Thomas Elling, according to a criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court. He rang the doorbell at Elling’s East Side home and shot him, the complaint said.

Elling, 50, bled to death at the scene, the Ramsey County medical examiner’s office said.

The criminal complaint gives the following account:

Elling and his girlfriend were sitting on their porch in the 1400 block of York Avenue on Sunday. They had gotten up to investigate a cat or raccoon that had crossed the road when Aloeng Vang drove his Toyota around the corner from Birmingham Street, almost hitting Elling and his girlfriend.

Elling confronted the driver.

“Elling told Vang he needed to slow down and be more careful when he drove or someone would end up getting hurt,” the complaint said. Elling then pushed the driver, who fell.

The two men argued. Elling went back to his porch, and Aloeng Vang left.

A relative of Aloeng Vang who lives in the same block as Elling told investigators that Aloeng Vang came to her house angry. He said that Elling had just pushed him and that he needed to do something or get something. She tried to calm him, reminding him that he had a wife and a child.

“Vang said he ‘didn’t want to look like a pussy’ and left,” the complaint said.

A few minutes later, a woman approached Elling and asked him what his dispute was with Aloeng Vang. Elling said he was bothered by Aloeng Vang’s reckless driving.

Ten to 15 minutes after that, about 3 a.m., when Elling and his girlfriend were in their house, the doorbell rang. Elling got up to answer it.

“As Elling began to open the door, (his girlfriend) heard two shots and (heard) the glass front door shatter,” the complaint said. She “saw Elling fall out onto the front steps and out of her view.” She called police.

When officers arrived, they found the front patio door shattered. Elling, who wasn’t breathing, had a bullet wound at the base of his neck. Blood had soaked his shirt.

Two 9mm casings lay at the end of the driveway.

Aloeng Vang’s wife told police she heard yelling during the earlier argument between Elling and her husband over his driving. She said her husband asked Elling, “Are we cool, bro?” She, Aloeng Vang and another woman then went out back of Aloeng Vang’s cousin’s house, also in the 1400 block of York Avenue, to smoke.

“Vang told the two women how mad he was about the guy pushing him,” the complaint said. “Vang said that Elling had disrespected him and he had been very close to hitting Elling, but he didn’t.”

A few minutes later, Aloeng Vang’s wife heard two shots. Her husband returned but refused to talk with her, telling her not to ask questions, she told police.

Aloeng Vang’s sister asked him if he had shot someone. He said no; he was done with “that lifestyle,” the complaint said. She said that if he was innocent, he should talk to police.

He walked to Elling’s house, ducked under the crime scene tape and told police, “I’m the guy you’re looking for,” the complaint said.

In a police interview, Aloeng Vang admitted he was driving “a little fast” as he turned into his cousin’s driveway. He said he apologized and told the “Caucasian dude” who yelled at him that he didn’t want any trouble.

He told an investigator “he would admit to whatever she wanted him to say because he didn’t think she would believe him.” The investigator said she wanted him to tell the truth.

Aloeng Vang eventually admitted to the shooting. He was angry, he told the investigator. He fired the shots intending only to scare Elling. He didn’t want Elling to mess with him anymore.

“I should have just whupped his ass,” he said.

Police searched nearby sewers after the suspect said he had thrown his gun into one of them. After they failed to find it, Aloeng Vang admitted he had hidden it under a couch in a house on Hopkins Street. With a search warrant, police found a 9mm Intratec semi-automatic handgun and a Tec-9 magazine there.

Aloeng Vang is being held at the Ramsey County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail.

In 2011, he was found delinquent as a juvenile after pleading guilty of car theft.

Richard Chin contributed to this report. Emily Gurnon can be reached at 651-228-5522. Follow her at twitter.com/emilygurnon.

As you comment, please be respectful of other commenters and other viewpoints. Our goal with article comments is to provide a space for civil, informative and constructive conversations. We reserve the right to remove any comment we deem to be defamatory, rude, insulting to others, hateful, off-topic or reckless to the community. See our full terms of use here.

More in News

A wintry mix is threatening to make the next few days interesting for Twin Cities drivers. The National Weather Service is predicting multiple rounds of light snow and freezing rain starting early Sunday morning and continuing through midday Tuesday. Clouds will settle in Sunday, bringing a 30 percent chance of snow before noon and a high near 39. By midnight,...

Hundreds of participants took the polar plunge Saturday at Prior Lake to raise money for the Special Olympics. The annual event, sponsored by Special Olympics Minnesota and local law enforcement, raised $158,179 towards programming and events for more than 8,200 special needs athletes statewide. The total was down from last year’s event that raised $192,258. The 568 participants that registered online raised...

Last month, a New Brighton commissioner wrote a letter to the editor of the New Brighton Bulletin questioning the motives of the former city council to change elections from odd years to even years. On Tuesday, the commissioner lost his volunteer position because of that letter. The council voted 3-2 to remove Ben Jones from the planning commission. Council members...

HALLOCK, Minn. — It was an improbable romance between strangers in a faraway place. Nathan Younggren was a 25-year-old farmer who raised wheat, soybeans and beef cattle with his family near Hallock. Victoria “Tori” Allen was a 28-year-old former ski bum and advertising rep who lived in Colorado. He played rock music in a cover band, and she was a...

State health officials say three more children have died of complications of the flu, bringing the number of Minnesota children who have died of influenza this season to four. The number of Minnesotans hospitalized with flu symptoms has topped 4,200. That’s the highest number since the Minnesota Department of Health began tracking flu hospitalizations in 2008. Preliminary figures released Thursday...